


Pyramid

by TaFuilLiom



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex working through some grief, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 22:50:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13511394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaFuilLiom/pseuds/TaFuilLiom
Summary: “Pyramids represent stability. Which is ironic, really, considering everything that’s happened since dad first put it on my desk.”Maggie helps Alex face something she hasn't shared with anyone else.





	Pyramid

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally the fourth part of Battles, but it didn’t feel right, so I let it grow and become its own beast. Some other thoughts tumbled in; Maggie in Midvale? Alex and her grief? More mean drunk Alex?

Whether J’onn remembered the date, or just heard the turmoil in her head, Alex wasn’t sure. Either way, he sent her home early.

She hadn’t gone. Instead, she had jumped on her Ducati, riding out of the city and back again. She ran down the miles trying to clear her mind. It hadn’t worked the previous years, so there was no evidence to suggest it would work this year, but she tried anyway.

When she got back to her apartment, it was after midnight. She had missed dinner, had missed calls from Maggie, J’onn, Kara, and Winn.

And her mother.

She sneered and chucked her phone on the table at the door. The sound caused a figure to bolt upright from the sofa.

“Babe, where-?”

Once Maggie got a look at her, she stopped.

Alex scoffed, taking off her jacket and throwing it in the general direction of the kitchen island before going for the whiskey.

Maggie rose from the couch and followed, but did not encroach upon her personal space. “Have you eaten anything today?”

“Of course.”

“Since lunch?”

Alex didn’t answer, choosing the whiskey closest to being finished and unscrewing the cap. She held it in her grasp, but didn’t taste it, didn’t pour it. Just held it.

“It’s my dad’s birthday.”

Maggie’s eyes flicked to where Alex’s hand was curled around the bottle, but she didn’t make a move to take it away.

“I know. Kara called me when you didn’t pick up.”

On this date every year, she drank to forget her father’s death. And this year was very special, because _this year_ she found out he wasn’t dead at all.

 _This year_ she had failed to get him back from Cadmus.

 _This year_ brought back feelings and memories she had pushed down for so long.

 _This year_ marked a decade since-

“We used to go surfing on Saturday mornings.” Alex smiled so big, _so hollow_ , remembering her feet thudding on wet sand as she took off towards the ocean. “Even when winter came, and the mornings were darker. Probably too dark, but he still took me to the water cause I begged him to come with me.”

Just for a moment, she was back there, the ocean spray burning her nostrils.   

“You don’t get used to the shock. To the chill of the water.” Alex turned away to reach into a high cupboard and grab two shot glasses. “Or to your mom telling you that your dad is dead.”

She placed them on the island, glancing at Maggie, scowling at how passive she was. She didn’t want pity, didn’t want sympathy. She had had enough sad looks from Kara today, and J’onn.

“Do you think Lillian let him celebrate his birthday all those years at Cadmus?”

She filled the shot glasses slowly, with a steady hand, even as her insides quivered with the pent up anger, mostly at herself.

Maggie hadn’t spoken, nor interrupted her. When Alex nudged a shot towards her, she shrugged a shoulder and took the offered glass.

“I’m surprised you aren’t stopping me this time,” she remarked, before tipping her head back and swallowing.

Maggie took her own shot, and then slid the glass back to her. Alex caught it, and finally understood; she wasn’t going to get a rise out of Maggie tonight. This _cop_ technique; this silent way of wearing her down until all her secrets came pouring out. It was an interrogation tactic.

Well, if Maggie wanted to listen, then she could listen.

“When my dad died, it was the worst thing I thought I’d have to go through. And I took it out on everyone. Never let Kara see me cry, even if I knew she could hear me. My mom, either. Told the grief counsellor at school she was wasting her time. I was _fine_.”

Alex downed a second shot. And then refilled the glasses. And drank more. Maggie appraised her without saying a word, and she held back from taking her anger out on the wrong person just because of a flare of frustration.

“I never even thought about why I couldn’t face it, but it makes so much sense, you know?” she said aloud, more to herself than Maggie. “A-and then she gives me this letter out of nowhere. How was I supposed to deal?”

“Who, Alex?” Maggie asked calmly.

Alex didn’t answer. She let the alcohol settle, the clock on the wall ticking down until it finally kicked into her bloodstream.

She shuffled over to get her phone from the table by the door. Unlocking it, she read off the frantic messages that had been sent to her since she left the DEO. Minutes slipped by in silence, Maggie standing vigil, waiting.

Alex went back to the island and drank again.

“You seen my bills yet?” Alex drawled, messily pouring herself another. “Are we at that stage?”

Maggie smirked, relenting. “I mean, I don’t open them, if that’s what you mean. Either way, I don’t think this is any way to go about having _that_ kind of conversation.”

Alex held up her latest shot, squinting at the amber liquid. “You’re right. It’s a very _formal_ conversation.” She knocked it back, and then leaned forward, boring her eyes into Maggie. “But as a cop and my _girlfriend_ , you might be suspicious about the monthly payment for a storage unit.”

Maggie’s eyebrows crept up. “Suspicious? Not necessarily. There are all kinds of reasons you might have a storage unit.”

_Why don’t you hate me yet? Why don’t you hate me like I hate myself?_

She rambled to Maggie, only realising one thing for sure: she could no longer follow her own pattern of thought. The counter grew sticky with spilt whiskey. How many shots had she had?

Eventually, hands gently pulled her over to the bed, got her to sit down, and pulled off her boots.

Alex stared down at her socks as Maggie padded away. When she came back, she was holding a glass of water. Alex drank it in choppy gulps, and then sat there trying to control her breathing.

Maggie alighted beside her. “You don’t have to be guarded with me.”

“I could have saved him,” Alex slurred. “I could’ve.”

Everything became blurry. She slumped over, pressing her face into the crook of her girlfriend’s neck. Maggie rocked her, humming lullabies as if she were a child.

***

When Alex woke up, she saw that it was almost noon.  

“Oh my god.” She rubbed sticky eyes and checked again. “Oh my _god-_ ”

“You needed the rest.”

Maggie lounged against the window, sipping at a steaming mug and staring out at National City. She was dressed in jeans and a blouse, but was barefoot.

“I’m supposed to be at work,” Alex said, sitting up. The room spun slightly as she searched for her phone on her bedside. Did she lift it off the island last night?

“Already called J’onn. He gave you the day off. And tomorrow, just in case.”

Alex drank her in. “ _You’re_ supposed to be at work.”

Maggie sipped at her mug. “I was. Went in early, finished four reports, and am currently in the process of taking an extended lunch.”

Alex pulled her knees up and rested her forehead on them. She didn’t feel fantastic, although she didn’t feel nearly as bad as she usually did after drinking on an empty stomach.

“I slept for 12 hours. I’m lucky if I get 6 on a normal night.” She sighed. “I don’t know how I don’t feel worse.”

Maggie padded over to her, setting the mug on the bedside dresser. “I made sure you drank plenty of water before you went to sleep.”

Alex spotted the two white tablets and fresh water by the mug, and reached for them. She knocked back the pills with a long draw before laying back down with a groan. Maggie chuckled, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Do you wanna talk about last night?” She lifted her mug, swirling the liquid inside. Alex’s stomach cramped as she smelled the brewed coffee. “We don’t have to.”

Alex wrapped a stray thread from the pillow around her forefinger. “I don’t know where to start,” she said quietly. “I’ve never talked about this before.”

“I don’t know how much you remember saying last night. You were pretty upset,” Maggie said. “But I think I’ve put together the dots. Which, by the way, got increasingly scattered as you drank more.”

Alex swallowed, shame blazing on her face. “You’re a damn good detective.”

“I am.” Maggie laced her fingers through Alex’s. “So, the storage unit.”

Instead of answering, Alex gestured for Maggie to open up the bedside table. She reached inside the top drawer, poking around until she pulled out a souvenir pyramid. She offered it to Maggie to inspect as she took a deep breath and began a story she had never told before.

“I was getting ready for college and my mom handed me a letter.” She wound the stray thread around her finger again, twirling it absently. “Basically, I was in my dad’s will. Kara, too. But since the money was held in a trust until we were 18, she just didn’t know how to tell me. She gave me the letter one night, from dad’s lawyer.”

Maggie kept her eyes on the pyramid, twisting it around in her fingertips. But Alex knew she was listening, putting the pieces together like the blocks painted on the souvenir.

“I was so angry that she just dropped it on me, and I took it out on her. I took everything and shoved it into a storage unit back in Midvale, and it’s been there ever since.” She kept the thread tight, the tip of her finger going red, then purple. “Some of it’s stupid. Some of it’s expensive as hell. I just could never face it. Not alone. But also not with mom or Kara. I guess last night I was trying to ask you…”

She trailed off, letting the thread go, her fingertip throbbing in protest. “Well, that’s that.”

“Figured,” Maggie said softly, attention trained on the pyramid.

Alex didn’t understand the depth of the patience that Maggie had with her. But she was grateful all the same. Staring up into the face of the woman she loved, Alex decided to take a leap of faith-

“Are you working this weekend?”

Maggie rubbed the pad of her thumb against the hieroglyphics engraved on the pyramid. “I promised I’d work graveyard on Sunday night. But I’m free Friday and Saturday.” She bit her lip, finally looking down at Alex. “We could go Thursday evening?”

“I’ll call mom.” Alex inched back and then patted the space she created. “You sure about this?”

Maggie lay down, sharing the pillow. She set the pyramid between them on the bed. Her reply was soft, but steady, and love burst behind Alex’s breastbone;

“Ride or die, Danvers.”

***

On Thursday night, Maggie joined Alex in Midvale for the first time.

They had a late dinner with Eliza, who spent the time suggesting all of the places they could visit the next day.

Alex balked when her mother told her that they would be staying in the guest room. Of course they wouldn’t be staying in her childhood room. They were adults, who shared a bed. Who slept together, both literally and…

“Is that okay, Alex?”

“What? Yeah,” Alex expelled, glancing at an amused Maggie. She contained her reaction and tried again. “Yes. I mean, you’re small, Maggie, but Kara’s bed would be pushing it.”

The playful comments and banter that followed made her warm inside, as simple as it was to admit. She had never felt like this with any boyfriends she brought to dinner. It was surreal, having Maggie in her childhood home. While she had always planned to bring her to Midvale at some point, maybe invite her to the 4th of July barbecue with Kara, this pseudo-spontaneity was just right.

Maggie insisted on helping clear the table and the dishes, and Eliza shooed Alex away. She agreed only because of the wink that her girlfriend gave behind her mother’s back, and stalked upstairs to the guest room.

She reached into their travel bag, open on the bed, and lifted out the pyramid. She had packed it at the last minute, deciding that it needed to come back to Midvale. It was too much like a bad omen in her apartment.

Alex shot off a text to Kara assuring her that they had arrived safe. She added that she and Eliza were still on good terms after two hours, so clearly things were looking up.

Around ten minutes later, Eliza peeked her head around the door to say goodnight.

“Where’s Maggie?” Alex asked.

“She’s having a wander around.” Eliza leaned against the doorframe. “It is her first time in this house. I told her to make herself at home.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Or you told her where to find all my embarrassing school pictures.”

Eliza toyed with her wedding ring, which she still wore despite the incident with Cadmus. “I can’t help it if you’re in a relationship with a detective, Alex. They’re naturally very curious.”

“What did you tell her?” Alex asked.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” Eliza dodged, pulling the door closed with a conspiratorial smile.

Alex’s eyes widened. “Wait, Mom? What did you tell her? Mom?”

***

Maggie closed the door to the guest room behind her, mischief written all over her features.

“Look what I found,” she announced, revealing an envelope in her hand.

Alex watched with apprehension as she crossed to the dresser. Maggie flipped open the envelope and carefully shuffled out the pile of photographs.

“Those are all from my last two years of high school and my first two years of college. I used to have them tacked on the wall of my dorm room,” Alex explained.

She watched how Maggie cradled the photographs as if they were precious, when really they were just embarrassing mementos, reminders of friends she didn’t speak to anymore, and teenage heartache.

Alex stood the pyramid in the middle of her flat palm, hoping to find some new angle, some new perspective on it. “Dad gave this to me when he came back from a mission in Egypt.”

Maggie looked up from the photographs. “The DEO has global jurisdiction?”

“The real Hank Henshaw used to trek around the world after aliens. He hunted them down,” Alex answered. _Like in Peru._  She flipped it up and twirled it by two of its points. “Pyramids represent stability. Which is ironic, really, considering everything that’s happened since dad first put it on my desk.”

Alex’s attention strayed back to Maggie, who was smiling as she rifled through the photographs one by one, tipping her head this way and that. She lingered on one in particular, and tilted it so that Alex could see.

“You were such a lesbian. Look at that outfit,” Maggie teased.

Alex groaned, seeing the two boys flanking her. She pointed to the black haired boy on the right. “About an hour after that was taken, I lost my virginity in the back of his car.”

Maggie snorted at this information, moving on through the pile. “You lost your virginity in the back of a car, Danvers? I thought you had more class.”

“Everyone loses their virginity in the back of a car,” Alex said defensively.

“I lost mine in a bed, like a normal person.”

“College dorm?”

“With a sock on the door,” Maggie replied. They shared a grin, and she went back to the photographs. “And besides, virginity is a social concept. Your first real time is what you want it to be. First time ever, first time it actually felt good, first time you came, first time with a person you actually loved. Whatever.”

Alex gazed down at the pyramid, rolling it between her palms as she grew shy at the implications. She cleared her throat before looking back up, saying, “In that case, I didn’t lose mine until a few months ago.”

Maggie’s eyes flicked up from the photographs. She slipped the stack into the envelope again, and slowly she placed it on the dresser she had been leaning against. She came over to the edge of the bed, nudging Alex’s legs wider with her knees and standing between them.

“I never told you this, but I liked being your first,” Maggie said lowly, sliding her hands into Alex’s hair and gently scratching the back of her head.

Little bolts of pleasure resonated out from the back of her skull. Blindly, Alex leaned over and placed the pyramid behind her. Then she snaked her arms around Maggie’s waist, bringing her down to straddle her lap.

“I liked it too,” she said innocently. “I _really_ liked it.”

Their kisses started slow, sending a heady sense of desire through Alex’s body. Maggie mouthed along her jaw, lingering at the spot that made Alex’s hands clench in the back of her shirt.

“Think you can be quiet? I kinda wanna be able to face Eliza at breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Alex jerked back. “Can we not talk about my mom right now?”

Maggie snickered. “Sorry, Danvers.”

She huffed, considering dumping Maggie off of her lap, making her work for it, but she could never deny anything when those dark eyes were fixed on her. “She’s a really heavy sleeper, believe me.”

Raising her eyebrows, Maggie said, “I wanna know all about your teenage hijinks.” She reached for the hem of Alex’s shirt. “But right now, I just wanna deal with those nerves of yours.”

“Oh yeah?” Alex mumbled, raising her arms as Maggie pulled off her shirt.

She let herself be pushed down onto the bed. Maggie crawled over her as she inched around and up towards the pillows. Her stomach clenched with the predatory look in her girlfriend’s eyes. It was dangerous, and she craved it.    

“How did you know I was nervous?”

“You have tells,” Maggie explained, pausing to kiss the sternum underneath her. Alex gasped, her breathing coming harder as more kisses climbed up her chest, throat and back to her lips. Her hands tangled in Maggie’s hair.

She whimpered as hips pressed down into the cradle of her thighs, and Maggie pulled back.

“Relax,” she whispered. “It’s just you and me.”

Swept up in Maggie’s voice and touch, Alex’s insides were molten. Teeth scraped over her neck as hands travelled down to her jeans, unbuttoning and tugging at them. She lifted her hips, eager to have Maggie back up in her arms.

She trembled as jean-clad hips met her inner thighs, and her eyelids fluttered at the first teasing touch of deft fingertips, skirting away all thoughts that she was unequally naked.

“It's just you and me,” Maggie repeated, the words brushing over Alex’s collarbone, shaking her very foundation.

Not long after, Alex crumbled. The pyramid tumbled off of the bed.

***

The next day, they told Eliza they were driving up the coast. Instead, they found themselves at the storage unit in Midvale, standing in front of the shutter numbered 0045 that Alex hadn’t faced since she was 18.

She was struck by the fact that she wasn’t sure what the intention was here. Were they going to sort through every item? Or was it just the act of facing this after a decade?

“You knew, that night,” Alex said suddenly. “You knew I was gonna tell you something big. That’s why you didn’t stop me drinking.”

“I had a haunch, which is a good chunk of my life anyway, given my career and all.”

Then, Maggie slipped her fingers through hers, and Alex realised that this stability had been what she needed to finally see this through.  

***

Alex left the pyramid on the desk of what had been her father’s office. She looked at it for a long moment, listening to the far off crash of the ocean, to the laughter of Maggie and Eliza out on the patio.

Then she closed the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Cheers for reading, lads. [Also, some of you have been asking about my social media handles. Here’s the thing, chickens. I already follow loads of you on twitter, so I propose a treasure hunt; come find me...]


End file.
